Posted by Josh Katzowitz

We told you the latest with Percy Harvin’s possible migraine headaches , but perhaps a bigger unknown is what’s going on with Vikings WR Sidney Rice’s hip.

The Minnesota Star-Tribune today calls the Rice issue “a curious case.”

People don’t doubt that Rice’s hip is injured, but you also have to remember that, after an extraordinary year (83 catches, 1,312 yards, eight TDs) and a big improvement on his first two seasons in the NFL, he’s making a $550,000 base salary this year. Perhaps that’s part of the reason Rice has yet to practice during training camp.

Here’s where the Star-Trib gets suspicious:

Rice and the Vikings have declined to reveal the exact nature of the problem - no one outside of the organization knew he was hurt until Rice's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, tweeted about it last month - and there appears to be no timetable for his return. In fact, coach Brad Childress said last week that Rice was "a ways away from returning."

The situation is so vague that it has led to a growing feeling that Rice isn't rushing back in part because of a contract … with no escalators. Rice is in the last season of his four-year rookie deal that averages less than $1 million per year.

Rice, who has been doing dry-land training and rehab as his teammates go through practices, only stopped long enough Monday to say that anything involving his contract is between the team and Rosenhaus.

Without Harvin and Rice in the lineup – if this scenario were to occur – the Vikings would go from one of the best WR corps in the league to having to use Jaymar Johnson (one catch last year) and Greg Lewis (eight catches) more than they’d like. Bernard Berrian obviously is one of the top receivers in the NFC North, but without Rice and Harvin around, opponents could shut him down with double-teams and force a relative unknown WR to try to beat them.

And we STILL don’t know anything about Brett Favre.

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

You might remember, if you’re a Vikings fan or a Vikings hater, that coach Brad Childress hasn’t always seemed so sympathetic to the sufferings of his players.

Remember in 2007, he fined former WR Troy Williamson a week’s paycheck after Williamson left the team to deal with the death of grandmother (Childress eventually changed his mind, after he took major heat from his initial decision). Now that WR Percy Harvin is in a similar circumstance – his grandmother died in late July – it’s clear Childress is taking a different tact.

But that still doesn’t change the fact that Harvin, obviously through no fault of his own, has the Vikings in a strange position. The second-year player coming off a Pro Bowl selection in his rookie season is vital to Minnesota for his offensive skills and his abilities on special teams. But now it’s thought he might be suffering from stress-induced migraine headaches – which frankly puts the early part of his season in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, the team doesn’t know when Harvin will return.

"I'm kind of flying in the dark a little bit," Childress told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune . "I'll let you know when I know something."

As the paper points out, Childress is taking a different approach to Harvin than he did to Williamson. From the Star-Trib:

Fast forward to the Harvin situation and it's pretty clear Childress is trying to be fair. There is little question, however, he would like the player back at camp. Obviously, the migraine issue throws a curveball into the situation because there were times last season when Harvin had to completely shut it down due to the headaches.

"The thing that I've learned is that everybody grieves differently," Childress said Monday. "That's just the fact of it. You've got to be able to respect that and appreciate that."

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Posted by Will Brinson

The football world is tuned into soon-to-be current Hall of Famers this evening, with Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice joining the enshrined at Canton.

But a certain future HoF'er wants you to know he's out there, and his ankle is still not in perfect shape. That can be the only reason why Brett Favre texted Steve Mariucci (via our buddy Gregg Rosenthal at PFT ) about it. Either that or Mooch just cashed in a favor so he could bring the exclusive news on the NFL Network's pre-Canton showing.

His arm feels great," Mariucci said. "His conditioning is good but he hasn't run much without pain in his ankle. It [his ankle] still gives him pain and it needs to be better before he reports."

The cynical blogger would respond to this by saying, "Don't wear your Crocs so much, Brett!"

However, the real football reporter (like me!) would point out that this is no surprise -- Favre isn't going to make a decision until the latest possible date available to him, and since that date is not today, there's no reason to think that he'll state his ankle is in "great shape!"

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We’ll go ahead and get this Brett Favre update out of the way, as well. Which I’m sure will be just fine with you.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune , the Vikings have put together a compensation package that would give Favre $20 million to play this season – a significant raise from the $13 million he already was scheduled to make. Apparently, $16 million would be guaranteed and the other $4 million would come in the form of incentives.

Though Minnesota coach Brad Childress pled ignorance during his Tuesday news conference, Judd Zulgad writes “Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe admitted Favre had ‘told a couple of guys on the team that he was going to retire,’ but the Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald reported an unnamed person close to Favre's family said he hadn't made a decision whether to play a second season with the Vikings.”

I know this is easy to say from the outside, but at some point, shouldn’t the Vikings say, “Screw it. Enough is enough. Thirteen million dollars is plenty. If you’re going to continue to jerk us around, forget it. We’ll go with Tarvaris Jackson. You stay retired, Brett.”

OK, that won’t happen, but would anybody blame Minnesota if it took that tact?

--Josh Katzowitz

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Posted by Will Brinson

More specifically, when Brad Childress took the podium at Vikings training camp, he discussed Brett Favre's REPORTED (can't stress that enough) retirement . Childress was clearly aware of the reports circulating today, even if he said otherwise and had no technical knowledge of Favre's decision.

"I'm not aware of any of those reports, obviously," the Vikings coach said. "I've been out here for the last three hours or so. But if or when the case is he does something one way or the other, I'm sure he'll communicate with me, I'm sure of that."

Clearly, Favre didn't communicate directly to Childress (although Minnesota's coach did say that he had "talked to [Favre] in the last 24 hours"), given the news that the reports from the media stemmed from teammates, but Childress seemed surprised at the notion that Favre would use other channels.

"Brett and I communicate ... So I don't suppose he'd call Jared Allen and have Jared pass the word to me -- that's not going to happen. I'll talk to him one way or the other."

Childress acknowledged, however, that it was entirely possible Favre could decide to hang up his cleats, since, after all, he is aging.

"He's a 40 year old man. He's just got to come to grips with it. He, his wife, kids, a lot of meetings with himself. He talks to people, he talks to teammates, so everyone of those are influences, but the guy who looks you back in the mirror is the one you have to answer to."

A key point that the media will focus on (and this is me doing it) is that Childress doesn't think Favre's potential retirement would be detrimental to the team, or, more specifically, the quarterback situation.

"I feel great about it. We got four, five good days of work here. People want to know "What's plan B?" Well, it's those guys and they've done a nice job in camp."

That's obviously a stretch -- the Vikings would take a substantial hit if they were forced to use Tavaris Jackson as the starter for Week 1. But even if Jackson starts the season opener against the Saints, Childress didn't rule out the possibility of Favre joining the team after their bye in Week 4.

"Those are kind of "if-then" hypotheses ... We're day-to-day right here."

Overall, Childress handled the slew of fully-Favre-related questions well (or as well as anyone could given the circumstances). At one point, he even joked, "I feel like this is Watergate. Have I done something wrong? Am I  own trial?"

That elicited plenty of laughter from media in the room, but the reality is, it's not entirely all that humorous -- Childress' job is wholly dependent on his team's performance. And while with or without Favre, the Vikings will still be a good football team, it's obvious that they won't be the same if he retires.

Although, as Childress pointed out, that's never a sure thing until you "hear it from the horse's mouth."

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#FavreWatch is in full effect right now, what with Vikings coach Brad Childress visiting Brett in Mississippi recently .

But it's lacked the sufficient tension of a true offseason drama (it's seemed more like a TNT original series at this point) ... until Favre told USA Today that his ankle isn't where he wants it to be in a recent interview, sparking lots of rabble-rousing and horned-helmeted head shaking.

"After almost nine weeks, it's not where I would like it to be, but I'm working at it,'' he said. "Maybe it never gets to where I want it to be. Forty years old … three surgeries … that's all you need to know.''

Seems a little too convenient of a reason to make people nervous, but whatever -- it's not like Favre, at his age, is ever going to be "100 percent." Getting older does that to everyone, be it golfers, quarterbacks or even bloggers. (Seriously: carpal tunnel ain't not joke.)

Also not a joke -- Favre has no deadline for his 2010 decision:

"The deadline? I don't know,'' Favre said. "There obviously comes a point where you've probably gone too far, where you just have to move on. He hopes I make the right decision for myself -- one way or the other.

This isn't surprising -- we mentioned that such a deadline was unlikely when first discussing Childress' visit . And the thing is, there won't be a deadline either.

That's because Favre's a top-five quarterback in the NFL , his backups are most certainly not, and if Childress wants to make a Super Bowl run this year, he needs No. 4. The leverage is obvious almost to the point of embarrassing.

-- Will Brinson

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The "Brett Favre Watch" -- an annual event in which the media, fans and some NFL team are held hostage by the whims of a veteran quarterback -- should get revved up pretty, pretty, pretty hard starting today.

That's because Vikings coach Brad Childress is in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, at Southern Miss' 7-on-7 passing camp, which Favre routinely attends . Childress was approached by WDAM TV and when asked about his visit, responded like so:

"You can fill in the blanks."

Don't mind if I do!

How does "To lock down Favre and avoid getting stuck holding a bag with Tavaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels inside" sound?

Probably pretty accurate, although if you disagree and think he's there for the lovely weather that the deep south provides in the middle of July, please feel free to say as much in the comments.

It is worth noting that a) Favre was unwilling last week to make a commitment and b) it's highly unlikely Childress is down there pressuring Favre to make a decision now -- as long as No. 4 is committed to joining the Vikings at any reasonable point before the season begins, he'll be a more than welcome addition, not to mention an upgrade from the previously mentioned backups.

Of course, for the rest of us, that means we get full-on saturation until he finally makes up his mind. Although since we've suffered through LeBrocalypse Now since the last Favre Watch, this one should at least be easier to handle.

-- Will Brinson

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A great scene here, as described by the St. Paul Pioneer-Press , with Vikings coach Brad Childress bumping into his son, Andrew, as the Vikings coach was making his way through a handshake line at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Here’s the lede (it’s simply too good to let slip by):

The uniformed soldier staring back at Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress on the tarmac Friday morning looked similar to the other young men he had met this week during a USO tour of American and NATO military bases.

Then Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Childress started speaking, and Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan went from being the latest stop on a goodwill mission to a surprise homecoming.

"I'm looking him right in the eye and didn't know who the hell he was," Childress said about his son. "He was much thinner. He looked at me with no mustache, no hair, but then I heard his voice and knew it was him.

"It was very emotional. Big hug. Hard to describe."

How cool is that? Childress, of course, is on a USO Tour with Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, Eagles coach Andy Reid and Panthers coach John Fox.

On a personal note: I attended the wedding of my cousin, Dana, this past weekend in Syracuse, N.Y., and the 4th of July was fitting for the couple. Her husband, Scott, has been gone this past year, serving with the Navy in Iraq, and it’s been a trying time for the couple because of the long distance and the less-than-convenient ability to communicate.

I’m not a military guy, but it was inspiring to listen to him and his groomsmen (two couldn’t attend because of military obligations) speak about patriotism and what it means to them to be an American. Such strong young men, much like Andrew Childress and all the Marines with whom he serves.

It goes without saying we all are in debt to the men and women who serve our country. It’s just great Andrew Childress got a chance to get that homecoming half a world away.


--Josh Katzowitz

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